1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to termination enclosures, and more particularly, to a pad-mounted termination enclosure possessing structural features which makes it easier to connect the electric utility line to customer feeders.
2. Description of the Related Art
This invention is directed to the providing of a pad-mounted termination enclosure of the type that is used to connect an electric utility line to multiple customer feeders. Termination enclosures are old in the art. They can either be installed on a post or wall, or be pad-mounted.
Larger termination enclosures are typically of the pad-mounted variety. Inside such a termination enclosure, cables come in from a transformer and are attached to a buss bar, with the buss bar then being connected to cables which take the electricity out to various commercial and/or industrial businesses.
When the cables are initially being installed in the termination enclosure, a couple of situations typically occur. Due to the weight of the cables to be pulled, a crane is often used to facilitate the pulling of the cables underground from a transformer to the termination enclosure, and then upwardly into the enclosure itself. Heretofore, since prior art enclosures all have featured a non-removable top with a door on one or on opposite sides of the termination enclosure, the cables typically are pulled out through at least one door. Then the cable to be connected is pushed back into the termination enclosure where it is connected to the buss bar. Complicating the problem, these cables can often be relatively stiff due to their diameter, so more cable is pulled into the enclosure than is actually needed, with this additional length of cable being cut off, resulting in the waste of both cable and money.
Due to this rather labor intensive process, some termination enclosures have had their outer shell fabricated from fiberglass, so that when it becomes necessary to connect a cable to a buss bar, the entire outer enclosure is lifted. However, this is also time consuming and relatively expensive to accomplish.
Another feature of prior art termination enclosures is that they have either used flat copper buss plates (a flat buss) to which the cables are connected using electrical connectors well known in the art, or an elongated buss bar which has a plurality of recesses extending upwardly from its bottom surface. In this latter type of buss bar, the cable is stuck up into the recess and then secured in place typically using a screw-type of retention means also well known in the electrical connection art. Again, there can be problems due to the relative stiffness of the cable, which also translates into additional installation time.
Another problem associated with the prior art termination enclosures is that the stiffness of the cables and having to bend them in order to get them into the enclosure often results in having to pull only a few cables at a time. By having to repeat the process several times to finally get all of the cables pulled into the termination enclosure results in a significant expenditure of time and money.
It is thus apparent that the need exists for a termination enclosure that makes it easier to connect an electric utility line to customer feeders, and which is relatively easy and cost effective to fabricate and utilize.